{UAH} FBI QUITELY CHANGED CRIME DATA

House GOP launches probe after FBI ‘quietly’ changed crime data

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Thursday, October 31, 2024

 

The House Oversight and Reform Committee on Thursday demanded the FBI explain why it released crime data last year that seemed to back up President Biden’s claims that violent crime had dropped, only to “quietly” revise the numbers this year.

FBI analysts initially reported that violent crimes dropped 1.7% in 2022. But in the quiet revisions last month, the FBI data now shows a 4.5% increase from 2021 to 2022.

Oversight Chairman James Comer ordered the FBI to turn over documents detailing the changes and any communications with the main Justice Department or the Biden White House.

“The committee is concerned that the FBI’s recent failures to report accurate crime data are politically motivated,” Mr. Comer, Kentucky Republican, said in his letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Crime data has become a major issue in the 2024 election, with former President Donald Trump insisting crime has surged and Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris saying it’s down.

Ms. Harris has been citing the FBI data.

But John R. Lott Jr., president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, said the FBI’s quiet updates undercut those claims. The new data showed aggravated assaults, robberies and murders all rose significantly, contradicting the FBI’s original release.

After Mr. Lott’s work went public the FBI told The Washington Times that the numbers were changed as part of a new process for sharing the police report data. The initial reports were based on extrapolations of the data, while the updated data is the raw numbers.

The FBI said it still stands by its initial conclusion that crime reports fell from 2021 to 2022.

The bureau has since reported that crime fell from 2022 to 2023 as well.

Mr. Comer said Americans are skeptical.

Indeed, a different yardstick for crime, the Justice Department’s National Crime Victimization Survey, shows crime was virtually unchanged from 2022 to 2023 and is significantly higher now than it was in 2020, the last year under Mr. Trump.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.